Telephonic subscriber lines today are increasingly employing all-digital networks for both voice and data transmission so as to provide the utmost in signal integrity and flexibility inherent in digital networks. Further benefits accorded to the subscriber include the more efficient provision of existing and new services, such as telephony, packet- and circuit-switched data, telemetry, electronic mail, alarm signaling, telex, facsimile, and banking transactions over the same medium, thereby greatly reducing equipment and space requirements. Additionally, benefits accrue to the telephone company in terms of increased revenue derived from the provision of these new services, and simplified management resulting from all services operating on a single (digital) network.
To provide an interface to such all-digital voice/data networks on the subscriber's premises, the prior art has employed discrete and/or expensive custom circuitry which lacks the flexibility to meet changing subscriber needs. Furthermore such circuitry encourages proliferation of incompatible implementations which vary in physical, electrical and line protocol characteristics. Additionally, the prior art interfaces occupy large amounts of space, have high power consumption thereby generating considerable heat which requires cooling apparatus and lack the reliability of monolithic integrated circuitry.
Specifically, the audio signal processing circuitry of prior art interfaces was complex and typically required two separate digital signal processors, one for the traumatic section another for the receive section. Representative of such apparatus is that disclosed in the patent application PCT/US80/00753 entitled "Interpolative Analog-to-Digital Converter for Subscriber Line Audio Processing Circuit Apparatus" filed June 18, 1980 on behalf of R. J. Apfel, A. G. Eriksson and L. T. E. Svensson, involving considerable custom-designed logic circuitry in the signal processing and control sections.
Furthermore, prior art apparatus was typically hybrid digital/analog such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,886 to Callahan, Jr. et al. A digital-to-analog (D/A) ladder network converts digitally coded signals to analog sine waves and an analog operational amplifier is used to combine the sinusoidal waveforms to provide a dual-tone output signal. The use of D/A ladder circuitry unnecessarily complicates the disclosed apparatus and introduces undesirable imperfections in the signals generated. Also, the waveforms generated are selectable from only a limited hard-wired number of frequencies and amplitudes and cannot be changed without extensive modification of the circuitry.
More importantly, the hybrid apparatus requires circuitry dedicated to the generation of tones, a relatively simple operation for a digital microprocessor to perform. Such digital processors are usually already present within telecommunication equipment and could be used for tone generation without the need for elaborate dedicated circuitry, provided an all-digital technique were available with which to generate dual-tone multi-frequency waveforms with the requisite accuracy.